Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much appreciate Senator McDowell giving me this opportunity to address some of the points he has raised in a wider sense but more particularly in respect of this SEO which is a fundamentally good thing. It should be remembered that these are minimum rates but perhaps not for today but for when we have the economic situation we might perhaps have in the future, given the comments from the Minister, Deputy McGrath, about potential future tax returns. The wonderful surplus we can expect to have to hand this year will not be there forever and we must be awake and alert to potential shifting economic times and ensuring that floor is there for people working in construction.

I acknowledge the submissions referred to by Senator Crowe, and as I outlined to Deputy O’Reilly yesterday, I am more than happy to engage and listen to anything in respect of enhanced resources or powers for WRC inspectors in this space. It is a discussion we certainly can have and I look forward to her and the Senator bringing forward proposals on that. Senator Crowe rightly cited specifically the issue of the ineligible list and the critical skills occupations list, which was at the crux of the points made by Senator McDowell. When the Senator started talking about Turkish workers, I thought that he was going a little bit further back in time to West Germany and the wonderful experience it had with regard to Turkish migration, and not just in respect of rebuilding its country after the Second World War. We need only look at the Bayern Munich or German football teams to see that the societal impact has been truly great also. Even as an Arsenal fan, I was very disappointed with how Mesut Özil turned out.

Looking more specifically at workers in the construction industry, Senator McDowell is perfectly right in that we do not have enough workers in that industry and we are doing a number of things to increase that. I will lay down these matters quickly before addressing the substantive part of the Senator’s point.

First and foremost, in the medium term it is about getting people into apprenticeships and to get people through the CAO, as they are now able to do by choosing the opportunity to become an apprentice carpenter or block layer. We have seen some progress in that and a great deal more can be and is being done, led by the Minister, Deputy Harris.

Something I also find very important within that is the fact that only 9% of our construction workforce is female, and that is not good enough. When I look at the work being done in Dublin City Council, in particular, to encourage women, but especially early school leavers, into council apprenticeships in trades such as carpentry, electricians and every other sort, that is something that offers great potential.

The other thing mentioned by Senator Ahearn yesterday and which was the subject of a Commencement matter today is reaching out to those who are long-term unemployed, that 4.2%. That is very hard to do and I believe Senator McDowell was a Minister on the most recent occasion we had full employment. He went to great lengths in his own Ministry to work with colleagues to try to maximise that. It is difficult but it is the right thing to do. I fundamentally believe we need many more workers to come into this country, not just in the construction sector but in the healthcare and ICT sectors, to continue to be able to attract the foreign direct investment, FDI, to support our indigenous businesses and, crucially, to build the homes we need so badly. There are also the large-scale infrastructural projects, including the MetroLink, which I certainly hope will be built. There can be some room to agree to disagree on this. We need these workers.

In the past year 70,000 workers came to this country; 40,000 through the work permit system and 30,000 from within the European Union. Many more people came to this country in the past year than left it, despite some of the wild accusations of some members of the Opposition in the Dáil. Equally, more Irish people came home from abroad in the past year than emigrated. That is often something that is left from discussion when it is said people have scattered to the four winds or that they are all going to Sydney, Melbourne, Canada or wherever it is. People choose to emigrate, and some have to, but unlike when I and Senator Ahearn left college, they do not have to emigrate for employment reasons.

The jobs are there in such a way that I fundamentally agree with both Senator McDowell and Senator Crowe that we need to look at the critical skills occupations list. That is ongoing work and we will have the next stage of that review in August. I welcome specific submissions identifying vocations on the ineligible list and moving them to the considered list and on to the eligible list. I would genuinely appreciate the Senators' engagement and intervention on that point because it strengthens the case. I have been saying that to a number of Members of the Oireachtas in recent days. Both Deputies Stanton and Creed have cited the issue of car mechanics to me, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae has mentioned refrigeration mechanics, and this issue goes into every sector.

Key to this, and again Senator McDowell is perfectly correct on this, and I very much appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate and largely to agree with him, is construction and, looking at the profile of this sector, we see, understandably, a great focus on office construction. However, we see how the workplace is changing with the introduction of remote working, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. We will, therefore, be seeing many of those involved in the industry, and we are seeing the market at work in this regard, opting to transfer from commercial development into residential development as they see where the market demand is as well as the societal need. Many of those are in the Grand Canal Basin or dotted out in the wider Dublin 2 and Dublin 4 areas.

I very much appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate, to discuss this sectoral employment order with Senators, and to very much emphasise how grateful I am to the Labour Court for doing this work. To have the full buy-in from employees and employers is no mean feat. It is something which is good for the construction sector and for its future but, crucially, it is vital to both our society and economy.